Minotaur And The Sacrificial Pawn

“Still haven’t reached the lowest floor yet? An S-Rank Boss, the 【Crimson Vampire Princess】—whatever she is, she’ll be done in no time once we get to her! Gahaha!”

“About twenty percent left, I guess. Judging from how things have gone, we’ll probably need to beat one more mid-Boss… oh, speak of the devil.”

When we pushed further into the dungeon again, we found a door straight ahead.

“This is probably the mid-Boss room. If we defeat the Boss behind the door, an intermediate warp device linking this place to the dungeon entrance should appear.”

“Sounds about right. Sid, stay quiet in the corner so you don’t get in the way! I might accidentally cut you down otherwise.”

“But be ready to act as a shield if it comes to that~ ❤”

All of us found the Boss room door.

We braced our weapons, steadying our breaths, then kicked the door open and stormed into the inner chamber.

I followed at the rear and entered the chamber.

There stood a massive, bipedal bull monster――the Minotaur.

“BRUGAAAARGHHHH!!!!”

The Minotaur gripped a huge axe in its massive hands and roared at the intruders.

“As usual, Garen and I will be the vanguard. Lilium, support with magic. Ruru, use your Assassin skills to strike at openings.”

“Right!”

“Okay~ ❤”

“……..”

They were all A-rank adventurers.

We thought that even a mid-Boss in an S-rank dungeon would be easily defeated.

However……..

“Damn! That bovine bastard’s attacks are ridiculously heavy…! I can’t take it! Lilium! Blast him away with magic!”

“I’ve been doing that already! But even when I hit him dead-on, he doesn’t so much as flinch!”

“What do we do, Sylvan!? I don’t feel like we can beat him!”

“It can’t be helped, this is where we stop. Ruru, use your Assassin-class speed to harass the Minotaur and buy us time, then we’ll retreat――Wait, Ruru, where are you going! Don’t act on your own!”

“That damned Ruru! Ran off by herself! Damn her!”

Even they, top-tier adventurers, couldn’t get the better of the Minotaur.

Sylvan gave the retreat order, the Assassin Ruru immediately fled alone, and the Heavy Warrior Garen and Mage Lilium spat insults.

Our battle line was already in tatters.

“BRUGAAAARGHHHH!!!!”

We bolted out of the Boss room after Ruru.

Normally a dungeon boss wouldn’t leave the inner chamber, but for some reason the Minotaur smashed through the chamber door and chased after us.

“Hey, hey, hey! It’s chasing us!?”

“Ev-everyone wait!!”

Carrying the items and recovered Magic Stones everyone had entrusted to me alone, I started to fall behind and risked being left behind.

“Hey! I’m about to be caught up to here~!”

“Sylvan, what do we do!?”

“There’s no choice. Toss all the Magic Stones.”

Sylvan stopped, drew his sword, turned, and slashed as if stroking—cutting into my thigh as I desperately tried to catch up!

“Guaaahhhh! I-it hurts! Wh-why!?”

“Lilium, deploy a barrier spell to separate Sid and us.”

“Got it! 【Reflect】!”

I rose, pressing the sliced thigh with both hands, but Lilium’s barrier magic blocked me and I couldn’t move forward.

“This is the last order, Sid. Act as bait and draw the Minotaur’s attention.”

“Wait! Don’t leave me! Everyone!”

“Hah! Do your best to buy time in your own incompetent way, scum! I’m a little sad I won’t get to punch your face anymore, but we can always buy another slave!”

Bang bang――I hammered the barrier with my fists, but it showed no sign of breaking.

“BRUGAAAARGHHHH!!!!!”

The Minotaur was almost upon us.

Damn it…! Is this really how it ends…?!!